Carrying Our Dreams And All That They Mean
by its-amagicalplace
Summary: Melinda and Andrew discuss baby names for their impending arrival. Fluff and teasing abound. AU.


Melinda climbed under the covers beside her husband, smiling fondly as he proceeded to slot a worn leather bookmark into the pages of the novel he'd been reading. She watched as he removed his glasses, laying them atop the book, and placing both onto the bedside table next to him.

He left the bedside lamp on, and opened his arms to her, letting her curl up against him, wrapping one around her back, and the other finding the raised bump currently residing where her previously flat stomach had been.

He traced patterns absently into the skin below her vest, inhaling the scent of orange that drifted from her freshly washed hair. The damp strands tickled his chest, and Andrew realised she had once more decided to go to bed before drying it properly.

He shook his head.

For someone so patient, she couldn't half be… impatient.

"You know, Little Bump" he murmured, talking to the baby within his wife. "One day, your mother will learn to dry her hair."

"No she won't" Melinda retorted quietly, and Andrew glanced up to find her grinning at him cheekily.

"No," he replied, leaning forwards with a smile and giving her a gentle kiss. "She probably won't."

"You can't keep calling her bump after she's born you know?" Melinda murmured, the smirk on her face hidden by the wave of hair that fell down her face as she rolled over to her side.

"But she is our little baby bump" he grinned in response.

"Idiot."

"I liked Andrew as a name," he argued with a smile. "I reckon she could still pull it off?"

"Do I sense a bit of a superiority complex?" she teased, trailing a fingernail down his chest, grinning when she could see the visible tremble he made when she hit the exact spot she knew he was ticklish.

"You know what I sense? I sense someone trying to use some of my, I quote 'psychology babble'" he replied with a grin, taking hold of her fingers, stopping their descent down his chest.

Melinda instead reached over with her other arm, and punched him lightly on the shoulder.

"Seriously though," she murmured, letting their fingers intertwine across his body. "We should probably have a slight idea of what to call her when she's born, she can't go by 'bump' forever."

Andrew rolled over to his side, propping himself up onto one elbow, and stared gently into her eyes.

"Okay then." He thought for a while, thumb stroking across her own, and Melinda waited patiently for his suggestions. "How about we each come up with three names? And then see what the other likes or dislikes?"

Melinda nodded with a soft smile.

Andrew pressed a gentle kiss to her nose. "Can we still give her the middle name Jasmine?"

She smiled again in response, knowing just how much the name meant to him. There had been no question, as soon as they found out they were expecting a girl, that in some way she would be named after the sister he had lost a year previously.

"So we need a name that goes with Jasmine," he murmured, unlinking their fingers, and trailing his own through the damp silk of her hair. "Maybe…. Amelie?"

Melinda shook her head. "Jade?"

Andrew frowned. "Jade Jasmine?"

"Yeah, that's a slight mouthful" she grinned. "How about Vivienne?"

"Or Leila?"

"Phil suggested Peggy?"

Andrew shook his head, rolling his eyes in a way he'd definitely developed since meeting Melinda. "I'm really not surprised." He paused, thinking carefully. "What do you think of… Ava?"

Melinda's eyes widened slightly, before she looked up at him, smiling widely. "She's kicking."

He reached a hand out, letting it rest across her blossoming bump. Melinda moved it around to where the tiny pair of feet were causing an assault on her insides, before pausing. The two of them simply lay there, feeling their daughter make her opinion on the potential name well known.

"I think she likes that" Melinda murmured, glancing back from her bump to the eyes of her husband.

"Ava Jasmine Garner-May" Andrew replied quietly, testing the name out on his tongue.

It fit.

"What do you think Mel?" he asked, smiling at their joined hands resting on her middle. "Do you like it?"

She leaned over to him, closing the small distance they still had between them, and traced his cheek with her fingertips. She pressed her lips softly against his own.

"I do."

* * *

_Prompted by lady-jayde-une and transformedbyhisblood, over on Tumblr_


End file.
